Getting comfortable with the gray area between being on and off a diet

Lisa met her goal of losing 100 pounds by her 40th birthday, but the struggle continues. Click through to read about losing the first 100 pounds or click on the links below to read about the new challenges.More >>

Lisa met her goal of losing 100 pounds by her 40th birthday, but the struggle continues. Click through to read about losing the first 100 pounds or click on the links below to read about the new challenges.More >>

I tried writing in this space about a month ago and got three paragraphs into it before I gave up. I just feel like I'm saying the same things over and over and not making any real changes that stick. But all I can do is try again and keep trying until I get out of this rut.More >>

This week was definitely a mixed bag as far as sticking to my food plan was concerned.

I did great for the first couple of days, counting every calorie and distributing them well between carbohydrates, fats and protein.

Then I had a friend's birthday celebration to attend on Friday night and I ate and drank a bit too much. I still felt okay because I had planned on taking a break (including allowing myself to drink) that night since I started my food plan. But Saturday, I failed to get back on track. And on Sunday I had an out-of-control bout of emotional eating.

I didn't really get back in a good groove again until yesterday, four days after the birthday party. And as much as this month is about being stricter than usual in an attempt to get my momentum going again, I am still trying to be comfortable with the gray area between being on my plan and being off it.

I don't want to overreact to a few bad days and toss the whole thing, so I'm going easy on myself and focusing on what comes next instead of what just happened. I do want to think a bit about what happened, though, so I can come up with ways to avoid letting a one-day slip grow to three days again.

I'm planning on letting myself indulge with pasta at my annual carb-loading dinner Friday night, but I want to be sure that I don't go overboard with snacks over the course of the weekend. With plentiful snacks at the rest stops every few miles, it will be challenging, but it's not impossible!

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